Angela Ackerman - The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Places

THE RURAL SETTING
THESAURUS:

A Writers Guide to Personal and Natural Places

Angela Ackerman
Becca Puglisi

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Copyright 2016 by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

All rights reserved

Writers Helping Writers

First print edition, June 2016

ISBN: 978-0-9897725-7-0

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in print or electronic form without prior permission of the authors. Please respect the hard work of the authors and do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials.

Edited by: C. S. Lakin and Michael Dunne

Book cover design by: Scarlett Rugers Design 2016

EBook formatting by: Polgarus Studio

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are bestselling authors, writing coaches, and international speakers. Their books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. Angela and Becca also co-founded the popular Writers Helping Writers site, a hub for writers to hone their craft, as well as One Stop for Writers, an innovative online library built to help writers elevate their storytelling.

DEDICATIONS

To every writer who ever dreamed, and then had the courage to follow that dream wherever it led.

And especially to Lee, for not using the ants.

Wish you had a powerhouse writing resource at your fingertips that could save you valuable time while elevating your storytelling? One Stop for Writers might just be the answer. Brought to you by Becca and Angela, the authors of this and other bestselling writing books, along with Lee Powell, the creator of Scrivener for Windows, the One Stop online library is the resource youve been searching for.

Our unique thesaurus collection covers emotions, settings, weather, characterization, symbolism, and other elements of description, and will help set your book apart by bringing the fresh imagery and deeper meaning that your readers crave. Along with an array of unique tools, tutorials, structure maps, timelines, and generators, you can also plan and organize your writing like never before.

Stop by sometime if you like; registration is always free.

PRAISE FOR THE EMOTION THESAURUS

One of the challenges a fiction writer faces, especially when prolific, is coming up with fresh ways to describe emotions. This handy compendium fills that need. It is both a reference and a brainstorming tool, and one of the resources I'll be turning to most often as I write my own books.

~ James Scott Bell, best-selling author of Deceived and Plot & Structure

PRAISE FOR THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRAIT THESAURUS BOOKS

In these brilliantly conceived, superbly organized and astonishingly thorough volumes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have created an invaluable resource for writers and storytellers. Whether you are searching for new and unique ways to add and define characters, or brainstorming methods for revealing those characters without resorting to clichs, it is hard to imagine two more powerful tools for adding depth and dimension to your screenplays, novels or plays.

~ Michael Hauge, Hollywood script consultant and story expert , author of Writing Screenplays That Sell

Table of Contents

CRAFTING SETTINGS THAT CREATE EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS

The recipe for good fiction includes a number of key ingredients such as compelling characters, high stakes, an emotional connection between readers and the storys cast, and engaging conflict. But theres another important piece that is often overlooked, to the detriment of many potentially great books: the setting. Every scene in every story has one, whether its part of a sprawling kingdom (Middle Earth), a room onboard a cluttered spaceship ( Alien s Nostromo ), or locales found within a sleepy little town (Maycomb County, Alabama). Big or small, familiar or foreign, the setting in each scene should be unique and memorable. Its the responsibility of the author to elevate a storys locations so they take on a life of their own and imprint themselves upon readers in an unforgettable way.

Readers the world over know what its like to fall in love with the settings from a favorite book. Whether the locations were real or fictional, they felt as if theyd been there , or they wished they could go. As authors, we want to create this sense of nostalgia at the end of a book; we want readers to wish they could go back. But how does this happen? What makes a setting tangible and as interesting as the characters themselves?

For one thing, the locations for a given story need to be more than simple stage dressing. Vibrant settings are thoughtfully chosen. Theyre places that hold meaning for the character and evoke emotion. They provide opportunities for conflict and personal tragedy and growth. As such, birthplaces, bedrooms, schools, workplaces, hangouts, and vacation spots play a pivotal role in shaping who a character is and who he will become. There is an inherent emotional connection between a setting and the characters who frequent it.

Written effectively, this emotional connection reaches out to include the reader too. Hogwarts, The Overlook Hotel, Tarasettings like these create an emotional response in readers because the author wrote them in a way that evoked feelings. Through the use of symbolism and multisensory descriptions, by using the setting as a vehicle for establishing mood or introducing conflict, the author pulled readers in, allowing them to experience life along with the characters in their worlds.

This is what readers want: to get lost in a bookto be so completely immersed in the story that theres an unsettling jolt when theyre returned to real life. Its the authors job to make this happen for readers, and one of the most effective ways to do it is by bringing the setting to lifemaking it dynamic, even epic.

Fortunately, its not as hard as you might think.

THE SETTING AS A VEHICLE FOR CONFLICT

One of the beautiful things about setting is that it can be used as a vehicle for many other important story elements. Take conflict, for exampledefinitely a necessary component. Story conflict can be simply defined as a struggle or difficulty that impedes a character from achieving his goal. It might be a physical roadblock, a confrontation with a friend, or an internal struggle (such as addiction or self-doubt) that makes it difficult for him to overcome his Achilles heel and move forward.